Baked Honey Garlic Chicken

I’m currently obsessed with baking chicken in panko crumbs after making my baked orange chicken. The chicken comes out so crunchy that I don’t miss the deep frying at all.

One thing I learned recently is that not all panko bread crumbs are the same. I’ve been testing out various brands and I can’t believe the difference. Some brands make the crumbs way too big and they don’t coat well and don’t bake evenly, looking pale and unappetizing.
My current favorite brand is Kikkoman. The panko bread crumbs are very fine, so they cook and brown evenly. I also still need to try Progressive’s version because from the picture on the box, it looks pretty promising as well. Do you have a favorite brand?
The chicken for this dish came out amazing. The pieces were so light and crunchy! I then coated them in a golden honey and garlic sauce. The sauce has some savory ingredients so it’s not overly sweet. And it has quite the pungent garlic flavor too. It’s hard to see from the picture, but there’s a lot of chopped garlic in there. I really love how this dish came out.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Dip chicken pieces in egg and then roll in bread crumbs until fully coated and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat until all chicken is coated. Bake for 15-20 minutes until chicken coating is a dark golden brown and is crunchy. I recommend using Kikkoman bread crumbs as they brown evenly, even at the bottom.

2. While chicken is cooking, make sauce on the stove. Add all sauce ingredients except the 1/2 tbsp cornstarch + 1/4 cup water. Bring to a low boil. In a small bowl, dissolve cornstarch in water, then add to the mixture. Stir until sauce boils again and cook until sauce thickens. Pour sauce on chicken right before serving. Garnish with sesame seeds and scallions if desired.

Interesting – I never really thought about the difference between panko brands! I usually just buy what I find at whatever Asian market I’m in. Then again, a lot of times I’m not using it for a non-fried coating, so maybe deep frying covers up a lot on inconsistencies?

that’s probably true about it not being as noticeable of a difference if you deep fry. When i was first introduced to panko, it was the Kikkoman brand years ago and I loved it. then for a long time i didn’t make anything with panko bread crumbs. I started up again a few months ago and I bought whatever was on sale. But I was so frustrated with my purchase. The crumbs were big and they didn’t bake well at all. I was sure this wasn’t how panko crumbs should be so I started doing more research. I found quite a few to be the giant lumpy ones that go from white to burnt, with no real in between color. And then I went back to Kikkoman and all was right again. Next time I’m trying progresso, which actually has the highest price.

I made this last night for dinner and it was absolutely out of this world! Last night all I could do was crow about how good it was. And when I got to work this morning I just kept right on crowing. This is a perfect recipe! This one is going into my special book of go-to recipes. Well done! And thank you very much! BTW – I had Safeway Brand Panko and they worked great – at lest I liked it 🙂 Delicious!!!

Hey there! I’m trying out this delicious looking dish soon and I was wondering the serving size of yours. You see, I’ve got to cook for 11 people and I want to get the sauce doubling(or tripling) correct. Thanks!

This makes enough sauce to cover 1/2 lb chicken, or about 2 servings. So depending on how big you want your serving sizes, I think you can use that to determine how much you need to increase the recipe by. hope you enjoy!

I want you to know, Kirbie, that this dish is amazing! I’ve made it TWICE! The first time I made it for company so I was afraid to stir in the sauce since it was going to be served to kids. The second time I made it for my husband and me and stirred the sauce into the chicken. Both times were great. I made it the first time with only 1 tablespoon S’riracha sauce, and the second time with a 1/2 tablespoon (in deference to my husband!) I loved it hot and if I was making it for me, I would have used the full tablespoon and a half! I love this recipe and will be making it again. It’s so easy! Thanks for sharing.

I had to make a few changes. I am gluten free so I made my own panko breadcrumbs from the heels of my loaf of gf bread. I discovered I didn’t have any gf soy sauce, but had gf teriyaki sauce, used less. I used a smidge of chili garlic paste since I don’t have sriraccha. I also grated a little ginger. All in all I’m betting the sauce tasted close to the recipe, it was sweet and savory but not spicy. We had jasamine rice and veggies too. Thank you for the recipe, I was looking for something to do with chicken thighs that was different!

I’m glad you were able to get it work out for you! Btw, another option for baked crispy that is gluten free is coating the chicken with egg and then gf cornstarch. It develops a light crispy batter around the chicken almost like it was fried. I love it!